This page is written by the game's inventor, Joe Joyce. This game is a favorite of its inventor.

Modern Shatranj

Introduction

This is a 'strong' variant of Shatranj. It was created as a bridge
between modern chess
and the historic game of Shatranj. It is meant to retain the flavor of
Shatranj while
having some of the flow of FIDE chess. This page is an adaptation of
the original Shatranj
page on the ChessVariants site. There are two movement changes to the
historic Shatranj,
with the elephants and general becoming more powerful, and a change in
the promotion
rules. All else is as the historic game. It is not 'modern' except in
relation to the
historic game.

I got the idea for this variant during a tournament game of Shatranj
with Roberto
Lavieri. We were discussing the annoying weakness of Shatranj pieces in
our after-move
comments when I suggested the movement changes and the name "modern"
shatranj,
just off the top of my head. David Paulowich, who was reading the
comments, referred me,
in a kibbitz comment, to Peter Aronson's game "Gothic Isles Chess", and
a
variant of his, called Shatranj Kamil (64), which are reasonably
similar in intent and
execution. My reply got another comment from David, asking about
promotion, leading me to
make the promotion changes. Further discussion with David generated an
estimate of piece
values. After this game's initial posting, I was contacted by Christine
Bagley-Jones, who
was very helpful. She made the ZRF for me; helped clarify and expand my
ideas in
discussions; and provided the impetus for the augmented knights and for
creating a
pair of companions to this game that expand on ideas presented here.

Setup

The array is similar
to that of Orthodox Chess, with Elephants replacing Bishops and Generals replacing Queens.
The game was also played with Generals and Kings transposed; so in all cases, Kings and
Generals face their own kind.*

*The positions for the King and General may also be: White King: e1; White general: d1;
Black king: e8; Black general: d8.

Pieces

King

Moves as in Shatranj or FIDE chess

Rook

Moves as in Shatranj or FIDE chess

Knight

Moves as in Shatranj or FIDE chess

Pawn

Moves as in Shatranj or FIDE chess except there is no initial double-step possible.

General

Moves as the king, to the first orthogonal or diagonal square.

Elephant

Moves to the first diagonal square or leaps to the second diagonal square.

Rules

"Modern" Shatranj is intermediate between Shatranj and Orthodox Chess.
Perhaps the quickest way to learn "Modern" Shatranj is to understand how it
differs from the Orthodox:

The board is not checkered.

Elephants replace the Orthodox Bishops.

Generals replace the Orthodox Queen.

There is no initial two-step Pawn move.

There is no en passant capture option.

There is no castling option.

Promotion is to General.

Stalemate counts as a win.**

Bare King counts as a win, provided that your King cannot be bared on the very next
move. (See below.)

Two bare Kings (see above) count as a draw.

**Pritchard cites a rule variation that is not mentioned by all authors: A stalemated
King may be transposed with one of its other pieces, as long as this does not result in
check.

Discussion and Additional Variants

Shatranj to Modern Chess, step by step.

This is not meant as a history of chess,
which I don't
know, but a speculation on how chess could evolve, and a way to see the
effects of the
increasing range and power of the pieces. I believe there are 6*
basic steps between
the two games in movement, and maybe 3 in promotion rules. Each
movement step changes
Shatranj somewhat, giving a playable game, when the steps are presented
in reasonable
order. Promotion changes also affect the game, but they are not as
basic, and may be
'folded in' to the movement changes. Promotion goes from only generals
to generals and
lost pieces to freely-chosen pieces.

Shatranj has 7 non-royal pieces, 5 of which are short range. Modern
chess (orthochess) has
7 non-royal pieces, 5 of which are long range. So, in shatranj, the
pieces are relatively
weak; in chess, strong. In reasonable order, the steps between shatranj
and chess are:
1) The general (queen) goes from 1 square diagonally only to the king's
move. This is the
least change from shatranj.
2) The elephant (bishop) goes from a 2-square diagonal jump (allowing
it only 8 positions
on the board) to a 1-square diagonal move and the 2-square jump. At
some point, the jump
is lost, but preferably later than this.
3) Castling is allowed.
4) The double first move of pawns is allowed. En passant logically fits
here, as an
adjunct to the double step, rather than a seperate step, occurring
later.
5) The bishops gain their modern move, and lose their jump, although an
interesting
variant would allow them a 2-square jump with capture of the
intervening piece.
6) The queen gains her modern move, creating modern chess.
While numbers 3 and 4 may be reversed, these 6 (or 7) steps are, pretty
much, the least
(remaining) change from the previous step toward modern chess.

Modern Shatranj incorporates the first 2 steps and intermediate
promotion rules, making a
'strong' Shatranj. Using steps 1 through 4 and freer promotion would
likely give a game
that is still Shatranj-like but more modern in some aspects of play.
* Roberto Lavieri has suggested that another
intermediate step
would be a 2-square slide for the Modern Shatranj general. Using this
weak queen along
with the first 4 steps above would be a 'Hypermodern Shatranj', a
name/game suggested by
Roberto, and should provide an excellent variant.
Steps
1 through 5 and totally free promotion would give us an Old Chess
variant.

Now, Christine Bagley-Jones, who did the
ZRF for this game,
feels that pushing shatranj too close to chess (using more than the
first 2 steps, above)
is a mistake, and takes away from the essential 'shatranj-ness' of the
game. This prompted
me to re-analyse MS from a different angle. The changes made to
shatranj to create MS are
to take the weakest pieces and add the move of the ferz or wazir to
them. This created the
'general-wazir' and the 'alfil-fers'. Maintaining this pattern gives 2
'new' pieces, a
knight-wazir and a knight-ferz, which replace the king's knight and the
general's knight,
respectively, for which Christine has been kind enough to make another
ZRF.

Knight-Wazir (NW) - This piece
combines the moves of the knight and the wazir. It moves one square
orthogonally, then optionally, one square diagonally outward. It jumps
any piece in its' way. It is suggested that this piece not be used
until players become a bit familiar with the game and the other pieces.

Knight-Ferz (NF) - This piece combines
the moves of the knight and the ferz. It can be considered to move one
square diagonally, then, optionally, one square orthogonally outward.
It jumps any piece in its' way. It is suggested that this piece not be
used until players become a bit familiar with the game and the other
pieces.

Notes

The promotion rules have been changed, by popular demand. Jose Carillo hs made a rules-enforcing preset, found here: preset The original rules were:

Promotion is to General, or a lost piece. If a pawn promotes to a lost piece, these are the restrictions:

At most, only 3 lost pieces may be regained: 1 rook, 1 knight, and 1 elephant, even if
the player has lost both of any type.

If promotion is to an elephant, it may not be the same "color" (occupy the
same squares) as the promoting player's remaining elephant. If both elephants are lost, a
pawn may promote to either.

The alfil and general become far more useful and active in this
variant. The alfil is
almost as valuable as the knight, and the general's value falls about
midway between the
knight and the rook. Roberto's 2-step queen would be roughly the equal
of a rook. Use of
the augmented knights, each close to a rook in value, takes this game
away from the direct
line to chess and more toward a game of considerably different
character; many
potentials of which are examined in "Great Shatranj" and "Grand
Shatranj", companion games to Modern Shatranj. Two more presets, Modern Shatranj D and Modern Shatranj R, using updated graphics have been added here.
The "D" version uses the DW piece found in Two Large Shatranj Variants to replace the rook. This piece slides 1 square orthogonally, or jumps 2 squares orthogonally.

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Comments

I thought about trying to find a position with a stalemate by bared K created by a series of forced moves (such as in a problem), but it seemed unnecessary at the time, as even though the 'stalemate' can be prevented in the initial position I gave, there's still the possibility of the 'error' I selected as the only line of play, which at least shows that such a final 'stalemate' could possibly arise by legal moves in a real game (and I've seen some pretty bad legal moves played over the years...).

Note that, despite the clever construction of the position, this is basically a non-issue: irrespective of the rule precedence the given position is always a win for black, as he can also bare by Kxa2.

The additional move for the lone King will still be required for this preset, but the Bare King rule precedence over Stalemate will assign the win to the correct player.

I would expect the White player in the center position to resign, rather than to play, but if he plays the preset logic will now award the win to Black (no matter what White plays), and formally end the game.

Agreed. The Bare King rule is clear and it only permits another move if the opponent can bare the other's king on the next move. Stalemating would require allowing another move where there is no indication it should be allowed. This is how ChessV is coded and I've confirmed that when 1...Pb3xa2 is played it immediately decalres black the winner. So all is good :)